Weird
by itsLisey
Summary: Halloween has hit and Alison is caught off guard by having custody of Gemma and Oscar for the day, when it is Donnie's day. Desperate to give them a good Halloween, Alison enlists Cosima's help to decorate the house. This was written for the Orphan Black tumblr 800-Word Halloween fic challenge.


Cosima curled her feet beneath her on Alison's couch and watched as her clone sorted through dusty boxes, pulling out strings of lights, broken decorative pumpkins and thin, flimsy strips of goofy, Halloween-themed window stickers.

"Why did you wait until Halloween to put up decorations?" asked Cosima, her lips skirting across the edge of her wine glass. Alison huffed and peeled two window clings apart.

"_Donnie,_" she replied anxiously, the pitch of her voice heightened. " - was supposed to have the children this weekend, but _Donnie _decided to go to a _golf retreat _instead of being a _father. _Maybe if I hot glue sequins to his chest spelling out the word 'father', he would remember that _that _is what he _is,_"

Leaning forward with a hand, palm up, outstretched towards Alison's direction, Cosima drained her wine glass and placed it on the coffee table. "Stop. Dude. Breathe. You're going to give yourself an ulcer."

"Four."

"What?"

"I've had four ulcers."

"Alison, chill. There's plenty of time to decorate. They'll have a good Halloween, okay? Here, look," Cosima grabbed a string of orange and black garland and weaved it loosely on the stair banister. "It's looking festive already."

Still slightly pouting, but looking all the more relieved, Alison nodded.

Three and a half hours later, including a trip to the store, the house looked thoroughly Halloween'd, though not necessarily what Cosima had in mind. It took her only a few minutes to realize that the spookiest decoration Alison owned was an outdoor glowing pumpkin that cackled when anyone walked past. She held it up to Alison, who was donning an appropriately orange kitchen apron with her hands caked in thick bread dough.

"You realize that this house is more appropriate for a preschool Halloween party, right? Where's your cobwebs? Spooky skeletons? Anything?"

"I think I've had enough horror in my life without dedicating an entire day to the spooky," Alison shrugged. "I gave all of that to Donnie when I thought he would be having the children tonight. I've never done this part, you know? Donnie always did it. Halloween was _his _holiday. I didn't even take Gemma and Oscar trick-or-treating. Ainsley and I... well, the men would take the children and we would pass out candy while drinking a bloody mary."

"You're doing fine, Alison," said Cosima sincerely. "As a single mom. You're doing the best you can. Donnie is lucky that you even let him see the kids. He was your monitor. You could have had him arrested alongside Leekie, and you didn't."

"Gemma and Oscar didn't ask for any of this. They still deserve a dad."

"And you deserve some credit."

Alison looked up. She cleared her throat and looked back down at the dough, pounding it harder with her fists. "Thank you, by the way. For helping me with all of this. You seemed like the type that would be good at this sort of thing."

Cosima arched an eyebrow.

"The type?" she smirked.

"I just mean... you _know..._" Alison waved her hands in the air, nonsensically, and huffed when Cosima didn't seem to be getting the point. "You look like you would like Halloween." she said quickly.

"Because...?"

Alison gave a deep, impatient sigh and rolled her eyes. "Don't make me say it."

"Oh, no. You're going to say it. Say it."

"Cosima..."

"Is it... because..." Cosima stood, skirted around the kitchen counter and leaned into Alison's ear, her voice thick, raspy and oddly deep. " - _I see dead people?_" she whispered.

"It's because you're _weird!_" yelled Alison, pushing Cosima away while laughing. "Honestly, you'd think that between so many of us clones, they could have gotten it right with at least _one._"

"Totally telling Sarah that you think I'm the weird one. And Fee, for that matter. He'll be _so_ insulted."

"Oh, please don't. Felix is already mad at me for telling him that my nose was wrong in his most recent portrait."

"Alison, we're _clones. _We all have the same nose."

"Yes but mine is straighter."

"There are parts of you straighter than me but it's not your nose," said Cosima with a grin. Gemma and Oscar came running in at the end of her sentence, throwing their arms around their mom and their backpacks on the floor. They fought for their moms attention, talking and laughing about their days. Finally Alison sent them away to do homework before trick-or-treating. Cosima turned to Alison, smiling.

"Look at those kids," she whispered. "They didn't even notice the decorations, Alison. All they noticed was you. And they were pretty damn happy, huh?"

Alison smiled shyly down at the dough, not saying anything but letting the single, happy tear rolling down her cheek speak for her.


End file.
